window opening on the left from his library. He
loved to sit there. As I entered I found he had stepped out for a
moment, but I know he returned directly after I withdrew.

On one wall of the library (which is a simple oblong room, in nowise
remarkable) was a copy of verses in a frame, by Cesarotti, and on the
wall opposite a tribute from Alfieri, both _manu propria_. Over and
above these are many other scribblings; and hanging over the door of
the poet's little nook was a criminal French lithograph likeness of
"Petrarque" when young.

Alfieri's verses are written in ink on the wall, while those of
Cesarotti are on paper, and framed, I do not remember any reference to
his visit to Petrarch's house in Alfieri's autobiography, though the
visit must have taken place in 1783, when he sojourned at Padua, and
"made the acquaintance of the celebrated Cesarotti, with whose lively
and courteous manners he was no less satisfied than he had always been
in reading his (Cesarotti's) most masterly version of 'Ossian.'" It is
probable that the friends visited the house together. At any rate,
I care to believe that while Cesarotti sat "composing" his tribute
comfortably at the table, Alfieri's impetuous soul was lifting his
tall body on tiptoe to scrawl its inspirations on the plastering.

Do you care, gentle reader, to be reminded that just before this visit
Alfieri had heard in Venice of the "peace between England and the
United Colonies," and that he then and there "wrote the fifth ode of
the 'America Libera,'" and thus finished that poem?

After copying these verses we returned to the dining-room, and while
one pilgrim strayed idly through the names in the visitor's book,
the other sketched Petrarch's cat, before mentioned, and Petrarch's
inkstand of bronze--a graceful little thing, having a cover surmounted
by a roguish cupid, while the lower part is supported on three lion's
claws, and just above the feet, at either of the three corners, is an
exquisite little female bust and head. Thus sketching and idling,
we held spell-bound our friends the youth of Arqua, as well as our
driver, who, having brought innumerable people to see the house of
Petrarch, now for the first time, with great astonishment, beheld the
inside of it himself.

As to the authenticity of the house I think there can be no doubt, and
as to the genuineness of the relics there, nothing in the world could
shake my faith in them, though Muratori certainly chara